Alfa System

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25 Jan 2004, 03:46 PM
NeoZeedeater

Alfa System

I have been trying to trace the history of the developer Alfa System but finding information on them isn't easy. Even their website doesn't show any of their pre-1997 games. So, add any games I missed.

As far as I can tell, Alfa System's first games were for Hudson on the PC Engine.

They ported Sega/Westone's arcade platform/shooter Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair to the PCE CD in 1989. NEC published it domestically without the Wonder Boy part of the name. I don't think they were involved with Hudson's other Wonder Boy ports but you never know.
http://www.myrsten.nu/spel/wonderboy.../wb3pce-jp.jpg

According to this site, Alfa System was involved with Hudson's Shanghai II(1990, based on Activision's game) and a Godzilla(1993) fighting game for PCE CD. Unlike Monster Lair, their name does not appear on the title screen.
http://www.pcengine.com.br/shangh2/shangh2.htm
http://www.pcengine.com.br/godzilla/godzilla.htm

Sony published Alfa System's Project: Horned Owl for the Playstation(1995 in Japan, 1996 in NA). It didn't get great reviews but I really liked it and it's well worth the $3 or so EB sells it for now. It was a gun game with polygon backgrounds and handdrawn sprites. It's pre-GunCon unfortunately so you will need an older gun if you don't want to play with the controller.
http://www.vidgames.com/ps/screens/hornedowl4.jpg
http://www.vidgames.com/ps/screens/hornedowl6.jpg

Very similar to Horned Owl but improved in every way was their next gun game, Elemental Gearbolt in 1997. Sony passed on bringing it to the West but Working Designs decided to release it in 1998. This is easily the best Alfa System game I have played. The gameplay isn't better than Sega or Namco's best gun games but the art, music and cinemas surpass them.
http://www.ncsx.com/ncs1215/elemgrc1.jpg

I can never find a good pic of Gearbolt unfortunately but this will have to do.
http://psxmedia.ign.com/media/previews/image/ele.6.jpg

Also from 1997 was the Bandai-published Next King: Koi no Sennen Oukoku, an import-only game for Saturn and Playstation. It was a board game of some kind.
http://allsoft.scei.co.jp/jacket/l/slps00858b.jpg

Alfa System developed the anime-based Linda3 Again for Playstation in 1997. I don't think they made the previous game on PC Engine. A Saturn version was also made although I'm not sure if it was a port of the PS1 game or an original.
http://www.alfasystem.net/awork/sample03.gif

Ore no Shikabane wo Koete Yuke was a Playstation RPG published by Sony in 1999.
http://www.alfasystem.net/awork/sample04.gif

Sony published Gunparade March for the Japanese PS2 in 2000. I think it's a action/strategy game but I'm not sure.
http://www.alfasystem.net/awork/sample05.gif

Sega's 2001 Dreamcast Magic: The Gathering game was developed by Alfa System.
http://www.magiclibrary.net/rarities...ering-sega.jpg

Esp published the PS2 RPG Abarenbou Princess in 2001.
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/life/hobby...0/img/14-0.jpg

Also in 2001, Alfa System developed the arcade shooter Shikigami no Shiro for Taito's G-NET system. It reminds me of Cave's Esprade although it's not quite as good.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...i_No_Shiro.jpg

It was ported to PC, Xbox and Playstation 2. The Xbox also had an updated version called Shikigami no Shiro: Evolution. It looked as though it wouldn't receive a domestic release but XS Games brought the PS2 version over as a budget title under the name Mobile Light Force 2. I'm not big on 'bullet Hell' shooters but it was well worth buying for me given the price.
http://bestcovers.tgnetwk.com/xbox/s...__jap_xbox.jpg

Shiki's Naomi/DC/Gamecube sequel hasn't come over here unfortunately.
http://www.alfasystem.net/game/shiki2/images/Status.jpg

Alfa System co-developed Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeons 2 for GBA in 2002.
http://www.alfasystem.net/awork/narikiri.jpg

Alfa System's most recent game is Evangelion 2, published by Bandai for the Japanese PS2. I read it's similar to Gunparade.
http://www.alfasystem.net/awork/eva2.jpg

What do you think of Alfa System?
25 Jan 2004, 04:24 PM
Low

Wow, that must have taken a bit of digging, no clue Afla worked on 90% of those games. You did forget Psychic Storm, their PCE CD shooter with nice graphics and sound.

Linda Cube Again is a game I'd like to learn Japanese for. The art has alot of personality and the story is like a morbid twist on Pokemon's "got to catch them all". *-neo
25 Jan 2004, 05:54 PM
kingoffighters

Nice detective work, Sherlock! :)
25 Jan 2004, 05:58 PM
Grave

Quote:

Originally Posted by neoalphazero

Linda Cube Again is a game I'd like to learn Japanese for. The art has alot of personality and the story is like a morbid twist on Pokemon's "got to catch them all". *-neo

I have LindaCube Again at home, but I've never played it. A friend grabbed it after coming into some sort of fucked up ad pamphlet for it, with these murderous Santa Claus-looking fellows, and... yeah, I don't know. What's it like?
25 Jan 2004, 06:01 PM
Shine

Good work on this. I was clueless to what they'd worked on besides Shiki.
25 Jan 2004, 06:08 PM
Zerodash

Masamune Shiroh did the character and mecha designs for Project Horned Owl. He may have been behind the storyline as well...
25 Jan 2004, 08:23 PM
James

I knew about Horned Owl and Elemental Gearbolt prior to the Shikigami games, but I had no idea about the others. I can't help but wonder why Alpha seems determined to hide thier name. Good stuff.

James
25 Jan 2004, 09:43 PM
Low

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grave

I have LindaCube Again at home, but I've never played it. A friend grabbed it after coming into some sort of fucked up ad pamphlet for it, with these murderous Santa Claus-looking fellows, and... yeah, I don't know. What's it like?

Haven't gotten far in it because of the heavy language barrier. The basic concept is the creation of a Ark to escape a doomed planet. You spend the game trying to track down animals (via RPG battles) and collecting them or using their parts to create weapons and armor. The game tries to replicate the habits of animals a bit. Some migrate depending on time of year, their power can shift depending on time of year (some animals are incredibly aggressive in mating season). It's a cool little game but Japanese is a must.

BTW those fucked up illustrations got me to pick up the game too :) . *-neo
26 Jan 2004, 12:26 AM
AaronChance

Gunparade March is a very Sakura Taisen like game where you need to woo the various members of a military academy in the future so they'll fight with you better. The two differences is once you beat the game, you can replay it with a different student as the main character and you can also have female/female and male/male relationships. Unfortunately, like Evangelion 2, it's heavy in Japanese so I haven't played it, but I've read quite a bit about it.
26 Jan 2004, 12:39 AM
NeoZeedeater

Quote:

Originally Posted by neoalphazero

You did forget Psychic Storm, their PCE CD shooter with nice graphics and sound.

It does look awesome and given the era it's from I would probably enjoy it more than Shikigami.
26 Jan 2004, 09:53 AM
Yoshi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ammadeau

you can also have female/female and male/male relationships.

At least half of that is a feature. The other half is a fatal flaw.
27 Jan 2004, 03:21 AM
AaronChance

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yoshi

At least half of that is a feature. The other half is a fatal flaw.

All you need to do is always pick a female for the main character to keep the latter from occuring. Only wish you could do so in their Envangelion game, but you're stuck leading the humilating life of Shinji the wonder wimp in that game.